Chapter Text
After the heavy rain last week, the first day of October started with sunshine and a beautiful clear sky.
Bora would have loved it to just sit back, enjoy the sun, but she was rushing to get ready for a particular party.
[singsing]
Come to mine at 11 am and bring clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. I'm taking you all somewhere in the woods, it will be fun :) sleepover later ofc! <3
Bora was very intrigued by that, so she put on her best outfit, which was a black hooded sweater, a pair of jeans, and a pair of hiking boots.
She prepared a backpack with clean clothes, as well as all of her sleepover necessities.
Whatever Siyeon had planned to do in the woods, Bora was ready.
--
“Happy birthday!”
Siyeon laughed while tightly hugging back the smaller girl, stumbling backward from the impact.
Kim Bora.
Her high school partner in crime.
Her 'you knock, I speak'.
Her best friend that she didn't see since last summer.
Bora stayed in their hometown while her high school friends went to college, all scattered around the country. Siyeon’s birthday party falling on the weekend was the perfect opportunity for a reunion before they would all get too busy to meet up.
"Ah, you're so cute," Bora pinched the birthday girl's cheeks, "I missed you."
"Missed you too, asshole," Siyeon chuckled, rubbing her cheek to make the burning sensation go away.
"Here you go," Bora gave her a bag that had bright colors with a big 'happy birthday' on it.
"Thank you, make yourself comfortable, you know the way." Siyeon took off Bora's oversized jacket, hanging it in the hallway.
"Are your parents home?"
"No, they'll come back on Sunday afternoon."
"Enough time to make a mess."
"Don't, the last time was so bad..."
Bora giggled at the memory and happily walked to the living room.
She was getting excited hearing the familiar voices and Yoohyeon’s laughter coming from the room.
“Hi!” the new guest greeted as she walked in, getting all eyes on her.
"Bora!" Yoohyeon got off the couch and skipped towards her friend.
"My favorite giraffe!" Bora buried herself into the taller girl's chest as she hugged her.
They were the class clowns called Tom and Jerry because of their constant playful fights and bickering.
"You're so pretty, hello?!" Bora complimented, gently touching the long blonde hair of Yoohyeon who screeched making Bora's throat produce that funny laugh all girls knew and loved.
Yuqi, Soyeon, Minnie, Yubin, Yoohyeon, and the one girl who pulled a face trying to somehow make the awful sound stop.
And when their eyes met, Bora's bright smile suddenly dropped.
Kim Minji or how Bora would call her 'the biggest fucking nerd on the planet'.
The nerd who went through high school with all A's and was president of multiple clubs. The nerd who never wanted to share her notes or homework or help out when Bora was struggling on an exam. Even when Bora asked her on multiple occasions if they could study together, Minji rejected that offer with the reasoning being that she was too busy, which Bora knew was just a dumb excuse.
Bora couldn't understand how Siyeon was friends with her, no matter how many times the girl explained that Minji was nice, she just couldn't see it. And she bet it was the same for Minji.
And she was right.
Minji stared her up and down, already tired of that ball of energy.
Bora was loud. Too loud.
And Minji didn't understand how others didn't whine from the frequency of her voice. There was no reason to be that loud of a person. But it wasn't just that.
In Minji's eyes, Bora was still the lazy student who never studied, always begged others to copy the homework, and was just overall annoying.
There was always tension between them since day one, with Bora jokingly teasing Minji for her good grades and glasses, or Minji not feeling sorry for Bora when she failed her exams or got the lowest scores in the class.
They even had some heated arguments that both of them would swear on their lives that they had won them all.
There was one particular incident that both girls couldn’t forget.
“Minji, why do you have to be such a fucking bitch?” Bora rushed after the girl down the empty hallway.
“Excuse me?” the taller girl turned around, shocked at the name she was given by her classmate.
“Why are you pretending you can’t hear me every time I ask you for help in an exam?”
“I’m not pretending anything. I can hear you, but I will lose my focus if I go try to help everyone,” Minji tried to explain herself, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Girl, you’re so full of shit,” Bora couldn’t help but chuckle, ”I literally needed that one question.“
Minji blankly stared at her not saying anything.
“A, B, C, or D,” Bora insisted. “That would have taken you two seconds to answer...” she sounded so defeated.
Under different circumstances, Minji would have felt sorry for her. But someone who never studied didn’t deserve good grades, she would tell herself.
“Sorry, but I’m not risking helping you to get caught by the teacher. Bye.”
Minji began walking past Bora, leaving the conversation.
“I won’t pass because of you! I hope you’re happy!” Bora shouted, making her stop in her place.
She didn’t expect her to come back with such a strong hurried walk. She stopped once she got right in front of Bora’s face, making her squirm a bit as she hovered over her.
“This has nothing to do with me. Maybe if you studied for once maybe you wouldn’t need anyone’s help.” Her speech was precise and stung Bora in all the right places.
“Well maybe if we finally studied together I might have a chance,” she quietly spoke, the anger put on hold as her eyes fell on the taller girl’s lips.
Minji swallowed when she noticed.
She didn’t expect this. She expected another argument fired back from Bora’s hurt ego.
Chills ran down her spine and she was freaking out mentally as their heads kept moving closer.
“Minji, are we-”
“I don’t help those who insult me,” she suddenly spoke, pressing her fingers on Bora’s chest, gently pushing her away.
They looked at each other intensely. Minji’s eyes were telling a whole different story now, and Bora felt the regret wash all over her.
Her eyes weren’t leaving Minji as she walked further and further away, leaving her alone in the hallway.
Rejected.
Twice.
Both of them wanted to forget all those moments; forced interactions, rude comments, dumb arguments, deep looks.
But the petty high school days were behind them now, right?
They could survive one day in the same room without causing a scene and ruining the party for everyone.
“Do it for Siyeon,” both of them thought as the birthday girl walked back, happily smiling carrying Bora’s present.
“Great, now I have two of the same vinyl of my favorite group!”
“What?” Bora made a confused expression as she sat down with Yoohyeon. “The album just came out, how do you have it already?”
“I got her the deluxe version,” Minji quietly commented, briefly looking at Bora.
“Oh.” Bora nodded slowly while burning inside.
I got her the deluxe version, ugh, fuck off.
“Great minds think alike!” Siyeon tried to save it knowing the two couldn't stand each other. Minji distracted herself by pouring more apple juice into her plastic cup and Bora mentally laughed at that.
Of course, she doesn’t drink alcohol. It’s a party, loosen up, nerd.
“Is Dong late again?” Yubin asked, looking around counting people.
“You know her.” Soyeon rolled her eyes.
“Isn’t she a model now or something?” Minnie asked.
“Yeah, she’ll be huge,” Siyeon said while bringing in more food and a beer for Bora. The smaller girl grinned thanking her. “She’s basically studying on the side while modeling is her main focus.”
The girls hummed impressed by it.
“By the way, Minji, how are you doing with college?” Yoohyeon questioned while eating potato chips from a bowl.
“Ah,” Minji exhaled, “medicine is hard, but I’m loving it so far.”
“You’re studying medicine?!” Bora blurted that out, almost choking on the beer.
Minji looked over a bit taken back by Bora's reaction and interest, but nodded happily, straightening her posture, accepting whatever comeback the other girl had up her sleeve.
“Didn’t you, like, I don’t know... Wanted to become a lawyer or something?” Bora furrowed her eyebrows asking herself why did she suddenly remember that fact about the other girl.
“I had many options, I got into all my desired universities,” Minji boasted, pushing her glasses more up the bridge of her nose. “Ultimately, I decided on medicine in the end.”
“Of course,” Bora muttered, looking into the bottle.
The medicine student waited patiently, studying Bora, but it seemed that she didn’t want to add anything else as she chugged down the rest of the beer.
“And what about you? What are you studying?” she asked her in return, trying to ignore the burp that escaped Bora’s mouth.
“I’m not studying.”
“Oh? Working?”
“Erm,” Bora dragged it out, putting the beer bottle on the table, “I’m in the process of opening my own dance studio, but it’s a lot of work.”
Minji hummed, acknowledging her but she wasn’t interested enough to keep questioning.
And that was what Bora hated. She always assumed that Minji thought of her as someone lower than her, at least that was the vibe she got from her, and it was making her blood boil.
But before she could do anything about it, the doorbell rang and Siyeon jogged over to answer. The girls heard sounds of a few kisses and pet names, so they looked at each other intrigued by that.
“T-This isn’t Dong, right?” Bora commented dumbfounded, eavesdropping on the conversation.
“Of course not, dumbass.” Yoohyeon flicked her head, getting the girl to whine and punch her shoulder.
Siyeon walked back into the room, her arm locked around another girl's arm. A girl the others had never seen before.
“Everyone, this is Gahyeon, my girlfriend,” she proudly stated pointing her free hand at the shorter girl. ”And Gahyeon, these are my closest high school friends.”
Gahyeon was bombarded by greetings and compliments, she could only show off her gummy sweet smile, and it was a matter of time when Bora’s voice was the loudest.
“Siyeon, you got yourself such a pretty girlfriend and you hid her from us!”
“We’ve been dating for like,” she looked over at Gahyeon who began doing the math, looking cuter than ever to Siyeon who kept looking back and forth between her lips and eyes.
“Two months?”
“I’m loving the Marceline and Princess Bubblegum vibes.” Minji moved her hand around pointing to the couple.
She was completely in awe of Gahyeon's long pink hair. It matched well with Siyeon’s black one, making them look very aesthetically pleasing to the eyes.
And while the whole room loved Minji’s observation, Bora was having none of it. Adventure Time was her favorite cartoon and she hated how Minji stole the joke she wanted to make.
Since when does she watch that?!
“I’m so sorry I’m late.”
The heads turned to the new voice coming from the entrance. Dong was standing there trying to catch her breath while pushing her sunglasses up.
“We get it, you’re the main character,” Yuqi said smiling up at her and Dong dramatically twirled her high ponytail making everyone laugh.
--
“So, Siyeon, what do you have planned?” Yoohyeon asked after a while.
Siyeon smirked and rubbed her hands together all happily.
“Oh no, should we be scared?” Minji raised her eyebrows.
“Are you killing us in the woods?” Soyeon added.
“Are we getting kidnapped?” Yubin joined into the fun.
“Wow Siyeon, you’re so romantic!” Gahyeon teased her too, wrapping her arms around her neck, kissing her cheek.
Siyeon patiently took all the jokes and comments before deciding to speak up.
“Can you all... just shut the fuck up?” she asked, trying hard not to laugh.
“We’ll behave, just don’t kill us,” Minnie said and got hit with a pillow by Siyeon.
“When you came here, did you see the minibus outside?”
The girls nodded prompting Siyeon to continue.
“Okay, so, I’m driving it and-”
“Yes we know you’re a lesbian,” Bora said and Siyeon threw the other pillow at her, but Bora threw it back quickly, accidentally hitting Gahyeon causing chaos in the room.
“Shit! Shit! I’m so sorry!”
Minji couldn’t help but enjoy the scene as she laughed with everyone.
“Anyway!” Siyeon shouted. “We’re going fucking paintballing!”
--
The ride to the paintball place was chaotic as expected.
There were complaints about Siyeon’s music taste so Gahyeon took over, securing her bond with the group right away playing ‘bops after bops’ how Soyeon said.
Dong and Bora were sitting together trying to take selfies, but Yoohyeon who was sitting behind them kept interrupting their photo session, resulting in a play fight between Bora and her. Unfortunately for Yubin, she got involved as well because Yoohyeon tried to hide behind her.
The trio of Yuqi, Soyeon, and Minnie loudly sang along to the songs, and Minji was talking to Gahyeon and Siyeon, third-wheeling their casual flirting and touches.
Occasionally, she would look over at Bora who was happily moving in her seat, not being able to sit still, always talking to someone, laughing loudly.
For a split second, their eyes met and Minji quickly looked away, pretending whatever was outside the window was more interesting. Bora held the gaze a bit longer before the others pulled her back into the conversation making her lose all thoughts she had about Minji.
She almost asked her if she wanted to sit with them and talk. Almost.
They arrived at their destination after driving for about forty-five minutes. There were peeing break requests and the ever so often ‘are we there yet’ just to piss Siyeon off, but all in good spirit.
“Ta-da!” Siyeon pointed to everything as they all hopped out of the minibus, staring around at all the big trees and the fence surrounding the area. The sun was burning through just enough and the temperature was perfect for outdoor activities such as this one.
“Damn, we’re really getting killed,” Yoohyeon joked again, locking arms with Yubin.
“Later, first we play.” Siyeon laughed and led the way to the entrance.
They were greeted by a man who gladly wished all the best for the birthday girl, knowing her father from when they were younger. He showed them around the store but suggested to the girls they rent out everything they would need, from extra clothes to protection, and of course guns.
Another group of people was playing in the field, while a few others were relaxing outside, drinking.
“This place is cool,” Yubin said as she looked around.
“By the way, some of us have to change clothes,” Yuqi said, and the man nodded, getting a key ready.
“The changing room is down there, to the left.” He handed her the key and all the girls went inside.
With lots of laughter and giggles, they put on all the protective gear and helmets, making fun of each other.
From the corner of the room, Bora stared at Minji who was brushing her dark brown hair with her fingers before making the perfect ponytail, getting ready for the action. She wondered how the medicine student would do in a game such as this one. The PE lessons back in high school weren’t Minji’s favorites. So Bora thought she might have a good chance to completely embarrass her.
“Are you done staring at her?” Siyeon asked.
“A-At who? I wasn’t staring.” Bora felt the blush creeping on her cheeks so she quickly put down the helmet.
“Try to be less obvious.”
Siyeon laughed watching Bora quickly leave the room, not wanting others to see her blushing.
By a game of rock, paper, scissors, they decided on the two teams.
“So the first team is Siyeon, Yuqi, Minnie, Bora, and Dong. The other team is Minji, Gahyeon, Yoohyeon, Soyeon, and Yubin.”
The man who first greeted them explained the rules and everything they would need to know before they start.
They stepped into the big field once the other people were done with their session. Siyeon booked three hours which were more than enough for a couple of matches, depending on how well or bad they would do.
“You guys are so done, it’s not even funny,” Bora commented, trying to hype up the game.
“We shall see about that.” The sweet honey voice came from the girl standing behind her and Bora didn’t have to think twice. She knew that voice too well.
She turned her head and her eyes were met with Minji’s determined ones. The same ones she knew back from school. The ones that knew what they wanted. The ones that didn't like to lose.
“Where are your specs, Minji Potter? Can you even see your targets?” Bora snorted, waving her hand in front of the girl’s face. “Don’t shoot your team-”
The tight hand-grab from the student caught Bora completely off-guard.
“I’ve never had a problem hitting my targets,” Minji smirked, “unlike you.”
Bora clenched her jaw and roughly jerked her hand away, eyes not leaving Minji’s.
“Uh, anyway,” Yoohyeon chuckled awkwardly and the others shared knowing looks.
“Are we ready to start?” the man asked oblivious to the drama.
“Yes!”
Minji checked her gun once again and looked up feeling her enemy’s eyes on her.
The corners of her lips began turning upwards and the other girl couldn't help but reciprocate her smile.
Both knew it meant war.